Santa Cruz’s faith community building homeless ‘safe spaces’ parking

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Every night and early morning Swanton Boulevard — across from Natural Bridges State Beach — is lined with campers, RVs and other vehicles spending the night. A developing faith community safe parking program may soon offer relief locally. (Dan Coyro — Santa Cruz Sentinel file)

SANTA CRUZ — As Santa Cruz County jurisdictions sort through the emergency homeless project proposals vying for some $10 million in state emergency grant funding, several short-term solutions already are emerging.

Of the services funded by an initial approximately $1 million bridge grant, much remains familiar territory. The county’s north and south county winter shelters will be extended past their planned April closing, continuing until June 30, according to Susie O’Hara, Santa Cruz assistant to the city manager. Also, the Paul Lee Loft emergency shelter at the Homeless Services Center will receive financial support to continue operating, she said.

A new player in the game, however, is the Association of Faith Communities, which is set to receive short-term seed funding needed to launch the new SafeSpaces parking program. While the city of Santa Cruz has authorized religious institutions to host in their parking lots as many as three licensed and registered motor vehicles at a time for overnight “camping” since at least 1999, there appeared to be few takers — though city officials said Tuesday that no official statistics were available.

“Now, with the emergency grant and hopefully the big grant, we’ve been able to hire a program director who can really make a concerted effort to work with the congregations and say, What do you want,” Association of Faith Communities board Vice Chairwoman Suzanne McLean said in an interview Thursday. “That is, I think, building community.”

The SafeSpaces parking program officially launched Thursday with an initial six sites for about 18 people in and outside the city of Santa Cruz, offering a place for those living out of their cars to park overnight. County Homeless Coordinator Rayne Marr said Thursday that she expects to release a detailed program funding break-down, both for efforts such as SafeSpaces and the long-term projects, next week. Elected officials from the city and county are being asked to contribute several overnight spaces in public lots, as well.

Uneasy prospect

While the city of Santa Cruz limits allowed overnight vehicle camping numbers, Santa Cruz County — where several of the participating institutions are located — does not provide the same cap. Santa Cruz homeless laws also allow private business properties in non-residential areas to host as many as two vehicles used for housing overnight at a time.

Tuesday, the Santa Cruz City Council opted not to make an emergency declaration that could have expedited efforts to offer privatized safe parking and transitional encampment permits for serve as many as 50 people per site.

“The current allowance for church parking is what, three cars,” Santa Cruz City Councilwoman Cynthia Mathews said in response to a proposal to allow use of religious institutions for parking programs “by right,” rather than by permit. “Up to 50 occupants is a big leap. Also, people in all the best intentions can propose operations plans and they can get approved and it can just, like, not pan out the way people hoped it would. My feeling is there has to be some kind of permitting and a little more structure to that.

Last month, in the face of significant community backlash, the council sidestepped an earlier proposal to turn part of the industrial Delaware Avenue into a safe overnight parking zone. Officials from UC Santa Cruz, asked to consider working with activists organizing around on-campus safe parking provisions for homeless students, said that housing is one of their priorities.

“Campus administrative leadership is currently evaluating and analyzing different proposals,” an official university response to the city reads. “This proposal has many different risk considerations and costs implications. UCSC will keep the City apprised as they continue evaluating these options.”

Spiritual growth

Providing needed assistance around homelessness issues is not a new role for the Association of Faith Communities. Or, as McLean described it, seeking opportunities for board member and congregation volunteers’ “spiritual growth.” The collective of northern Santa Cruz County faith communities stepped in to operate the North County winter shelter three years ago, when the Homeless Services Center backed away from the role for the first time in decades. Subsequently, after the Salvation Army took over management of the effort, the faith leadership group continued to rally its volunteers to prepare and serve dinners nightly at the shelters. The organization also runs a small, structured, year-round rotating nightly homeless shelter of about 20 people at a time, host to about 85 to 90 people in the past five years.

According to McLean, individual religious institutions will be assisted with on-site portable toilets where public facilities are not available, coordinating and vetting of vehicle campers and liability insurance coverage. Participants in SafeSpaces will need to have a registered and insured vehicle and undergo a background check. Religious institutions, secular entities and interested vehicle camping participants alike may reach out to the Association of Faith Community’s Debbie Bates at 831-332-8151 for information.